Online Free School Meals: a revolution in public service delivery

Objectives

The Free School Meals service has such a complex delivery chain that for many years it sat in the ‘too difficult to solve box’. 

Over one million children in England and Wales are registered as eligible to receive a free school meal.  152 English and 22 Welsh local authorities are responsible for the delivery of a free school meal service and the application process is usually managed by the authority. While local authorities and schools are responsible for administration, eligibility for a free school meals is determined by a parent/carer receiving specific qualifying benefits, from the Department for Work and Pensions, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs or the Home Office.

The systems for administering free school meals vary across local authorities but all previously involved the manual checking of often complicated documentation by local authority or school staff and sometimes both.  Applications had to be accompanied by current paper proof of benefit from the Department for Work and Pension, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs or Home Office.  The process was slow, time consuming and frustrating for both parents/carers and other government departments, while placing significant demands on local authorities and schools.  Processing of the application took many weeks often involving having to take the completed form to a local job centre where it was stamped to show that the required criteria were being met.  For the parent/carer it could be months before the child received a free nutritious meal on each school day.  More significantly, parents/carers often gave up because of complexities and delays or were discouraged from even trying to apply.  Finally, having made an application and been proved eligible, parents/carers were obliged to re-apply at termly, bi-annual or annual intervals.